Rove's latest distortion: Dems plan $1T "price tag" for health reform

Karl Rove advanced the falsehood that the House health care reform bill would add $1 trillion to the federal deficit. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has found that the House tri-committee bill "would result in a net increase in the federal budget deficit of $239 billion over the 2010-2019 period," not $1 trillion.

From the July 29 edition of Fox News' Hannity:

ROVE: Yeah, well, look, remember, we had four Blue Dog Democrats say we've cut a deal on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and three Blue Dog Democrats had said we're not part of it. In fact, the leader of the Blue Dogs this afternoon said we have not -- we have not signed on to this deal.

And think about it. They're planning on a 1 trillion, 420 billion -- 420 million dollar price tag of additional spending over the next 10 years, and what they've done is, today, supposedly -- we haven't seen the details -- but they've trimmed that by 10 percent. So we're only going to beggar ourselves by $900 billion over the next decade and that's assuming they get all of the tax increases and all of the Medicare cuts that are built into this.

There are 500 and some-odd billion dollars' worth of tax increases in the House plan, and there are 400 billion dollars' worth of Medicare cuts in there, and I don't think they're likely to get either one of those.

Rove's suggested $1 trillion "price tag" is false

CBO found that the House tri-committee bill would increase the federal budget deficit by $239 billion over 10 years -- not $1 trillion.In its July 17 cost estimate of the bill as introduced, CBO explained that its "estimate reflects a projected 10-year cost of the bill's insurance coverage provisions of $1,042 billion, partly offset by net spending changes that CBO estimates would save $219 billion over the same period, and by revenue provisions that [the Joint Committee on Taxation] estimates would increase federal revenues by about $583 billion over those 10 years."

Rove joinsNew York Times, MSNBC in advancing false cost estimate.During the July 27 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, CNBC host Maria Bartiromo falsely asserted as fact that the health care reform proposal under consideration in Congress would cost a "trillion dollars over 10 years." Likewise, a July 28 New York Timesarticle falsely reported that the House health care reform bill is "estimated at $1 trillion over 10 years."

Rove falsely suggested Obama was considering "a universal health care system like the European countries." In his April 30 Wall Street Journalcolumn, Rove distorted a statement by President Obama to falsely suggest Obama was considering "a universal health care system like the European countries." Rove wrote that, in 2008, the Obama campaign "ran ads attacking 'government-run health care' as 'extreme.' Now Mr. Obama is asking, as he did at a townhall meeting last month, 'Why not do a universal health care system like the European countries?' Maybe because he was elected by intimating that would be 'extreme'?" In fact, in the town hall remarks Rove quoted, Obama was paraphrasing the question he had just been asked -- "Why can we not have a universal health care system, like many European countries, where people are treated based on needs rather than financial resources?" -- before explaining why he opposed such a system.

From the July 29 edition of Fox News' Hannity:

HANNITY: All right. So they announced this deal with the Blue Dog Democrats. They come out, and they say, "We have struck a deal." And, apparently, they're going to cut $100 billion. They'll vote on it in September, which I think is a good thing -- and I'll get to that in a minute here.

But then, all of a sudden, the liberal members of the caucus on the committee, they're angry with [Rep.] Henry Waxman [D-CA].

What do you make of all the Democratic infighting on this?

ROVE: Yeah, well, look, remember, we had four Blue Dog Democrats say we've cut a deal on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and three Blue Dog Democrats had said we're not part of it. In fact, the leader of the Blue Dogs this afternoon said we have not -- we have not signed on to this deal.

And think about it. They're planning on a 1 trillion, 420 billion -- 420 million dollar price tag of additional spending over the next 10 years, and what they've done is, today, supposedly -- we haven't seen the details -- but they've trimmed that by 10 percent. So we're only going to beggar ourselves by $900 billion over the next decade and that's assuming they get all of the tax increases and all of the Medicare cuts that are built into this.

There are 500 and some-odd billion dollars' worth of tax increases in the House plan, and there are 400 billion dollars' worth of Medicare cuts in there, and I don't think they're likely to get either one of those.

So this is --

HANNITY: Yeah.

ROVE: Once again, you know, the Blue Dogs, you know, they sound good, they make good noises, but at least of the seven Blue Dogs today on the Energy and Commerce Committee, four of them signed on to a bad deal, it sounds like, and three of them said, "Don't count us in."

HANNITY: Karl, you know, it sounds to me, and I spoke to one of the Republicans on the committee, and they said, well, it is interesting that a lot of -- the Democrats have been promised a lot more money for their districts and some of the more rural areas, which sounds to me like, basically, they went in, they had numerous requests for very expensive projects in their home districts.

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